Noel Employment Ltd.

HC Deb 21 October 1993 vol 230 cc333-4W

Mr. Fraser

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his answer of 29 June,Official Report, column 474, for what reasons his Department judged that the temporary employees of Noel Employment Ltd. were to be refused redundancy payments.

Miss Widdecombe

Claims from the majority of temporary workers were rejected because they were not considered to be "employees" as defined in section 153 of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978. The Department examined all the relevant contract documentation which indicated that in the majority of cases there was no obligation on the company to provide work, or for the temporary workers to accept it and that the temporary workers were free to work for other agencies between engagements. Nor were there any contractual arrangements for holiday, sick pay or pay for bank holidays which would normally be associated with a contract of service.

Two separate industrial tribunals have since upheld the Department's view that these factors were inconsistent with employee status for the purposes of the 1978 Act.